An Examination of U.S. Anti-Communist Hysteria and McCarthyism

The Anti-Communist hysteria that swept the nation after World War II, and many other times as well, and McCarthyism are deeply intertwined concepts. In fact, it seems that McCarthyism describes the United States' behavior during the Cold War almost perfectly. However, in order to better understand the United States' paranoia and how it relates so perfectly to McCarthyism, it is necessary to examine some specific examples of Anti-Communist hysteria, as well as some of the most prominent examples of McCarthyism, to determine how they are related.

Quite simply, McCarthyism is the practice of accusing another party of some sort of crime, usually a traitorous one, without regard for any real evidence, and usually out of fear or paranoia (Doherty 14). Eventually, McCarthyism had become a full-blown epidemic, and not just limited to anti-Communist accusations, either, although that was the main application of McCarthyism. In 1953, Harry S. Truman, who was president at the time, made a public statement decrying McCarthyism. "[McCarthyism] is the corruption of the truth, and the abandonment of our historical devotion of fair play. It is the abandonment of the due process of law. It is the use of the Big Lie and the unfounded accusation against any citizen in the name of Americanism and security. It is the rise to power of the demagogue who lives on untruth..." (Doherty 14-15). The important thing to keep in mind regarding McCarthyism, and the point that Truman was likely trying to make, is that McCarthyism is a problem that can be solved by the proper amount of awareness and logic. It is a knee-jerk reaction to an unseen threat, and thus has the potential to send a group of people, or even an entire country, into mass hysteria. After all, the greatest threat of all is the one you once called your ally.

While the role of Republican U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was a famous anti-Communist in the early fifties, is meager in comparison to the number of people affected by McCarthyism, many nonetheless attribute McCarthyism to him, and, indeed, his influence on modern McCarthyism is profound. It is likely that, as time went on, McCarthy was more of a figurehead for accusations without merit, and thus became a whipping boy of sorts, and, soon enough, anyone who accused someone of a traitorous crime without evidence became known as a "McCarthyist" (Doherty 15). However, until that time, McCarthy did have a huge impact, especially when anti-Communist sentiment was in its infancy. McCarthy's first anti-Communist act was in February of 1950, when he appeared in front of the Ohio County Women's Republican Club in West Virginia (McCarthy et al. 2). Here, he waved a piece of paper in the air and declared that he had an exhaustive list of all of the members of the Communist party who were working and shaping policy in the State Department (McCarthy et al. 2). This type of subversion on such a grand scale was unheard of at the time, and many people thought this could spell the end of the United States. However, McCarthy's campaign against Communism was far from over. Later on, despite investigations that found no trace of any of McCarthy's claims, he continued what he called his "Red-baiting" campaign, and, in 1953, used his position as head of the Committee on Government Operations to launch expansive investigations of alleged Communist infiltrations of the federal government (McCarthy et al. 3). This is where McCarthy crossed the line in his search for Communist activity, and what, in all likelihood, lead to his eventual downfall. McCarthy saw fit to "aggressively interrogate" key witnesses to crimes they may or may not have even committed, and many saw this as a violation of their civil rights (McCarthy et al. 3). In fact, a whopping 2,000 government employees lost their jobs as a result of McCarthy's investigations, and many were not happy with him due to that fact alone, much less that he found little hard evidence of any Communist foul-play. Later, in 1954, McCarthy tried to expose the Communist regime that was infiltrating the military. This was what caused the remainder of the nation to turn against him. After an unsuccessful investigation by McCarthy, the military released what came to be known as the "Army-McCarthy Hearings" on national television, which revealed McCarthy's horrible interrogation practices, as well as the preferential treatment McCarthy offered to his own aides when they were drafted (McCarthy et al. 3). From here, the Senate voted to condemn McCarthy for behavior that they called "inexcusable, reprehensible, vulgar and insulting" conduct that they said was "unbecoming a senator" (McCarthy et al. 3).

Of all the applications that McCarthyism is relevant to, the United States numerous anti-Communist scares are by far the most prominent examples. The earliest example of McCarthyism being applied to perpetuate anti-Communist sentiments was shortly after World War II. In order to prove that the Red Menace was, indeed, a real threat, the Soviet Union exploded its first atomic bomb, in 1949 (McCarthy et al. 3). There were other Communist actions at around the same time as well, such as the Communists declaring victory in the Chinese Civil War (which led to the establishment of the People's Republic of China), as well as the invasion of pro-west South Korea by Communist North Korea, which many saw as symbolism for what Communist Russia could very well do to America (McCarthy et al. 2-3). To help counteract a similar situation in the United States, the Republican House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), began a campaign to prevent Communist subversion at home (McCarthy et al. 3). These measures included passing the McCarran Internal Security Act, which required that all "subversives" in the United States submit to government supervision (McCarthy et al. 3). Although the measure was subsequently vetoed by Truman, it was effective in representing the measures that many in America were willing to partake in order to ensure their own security from Communism, which, at that point in time, had become an epidemic, much like McCarthyism. In addition, President Truman also issued the infamous Executive Order 9835, aka the "Loyalty Order," which required that all federal employees have evidence presented about them that proved their loyalty to the United States government. This action's effects were more a result of the distrust that was now proven to be festering in the United States government, rather than the consequences of the order itself.

Perhaps the most famous of all of the anti-Communist witch-hunts in the United States' sordid history is the Red Scare. Although most people only remember the second Red Scare in the fifties, there was actually a Red Scare before that one, known as the first Red Scare, around 1920, just after the Bolshevik Revolution, in 1917 (Murray 3). This first Red Scare marked one of the first widespread hysterias in the history of the country. Before World War I, the concept of a worldwide war was virtually unheard of, but after the tumultuous war, anything and everything was perceived to be a threat to the United States, and the Bolshevik threat was enough to throw many people over the edge. This hysteria was fueled by things like the discovery of a plot to mail thirty-six bombs to members of the United States' political establishment, although the bomber turned out to be an Italian-American radical, not a Bolshevik (Murray 34). Even before these bombings, President Wilson had had asked Congress to legislate the Sedition Act of 1918, which protected wartime morale by deporting those who were viewed to be potentially traitorous (Murray 33). These measures showed how far the United States was willing to go to preserve the illusion of security in its own nation. The public was all too willing to sacrifice its own liberty in exchange for security from these foreign invaders. In fact, Felix Frankfurter published a report on the numerous violations of Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Amendment rights in his book A Report on the Illegal Practices of the United States Department of Justice (Williams 1). Even worse, it was found that of the thousands of aliens that were arrested and deported, only about 600 were backed up with substantial evidence, which alone warrants the first Red Scare as one of the most terrifying examples of mass hysteria in the history of the United States (Murray 31).

The second Red Scare is the event most people think of when they hear "Red Scare" as this one was on an even larger scale than the first Red Scare. Interestingly, the second Red Scare came to be known as McCarthyism, which is where the concept originally got its name (although there are many other examples of McCarthyism outside of the second Red Scare). Similar to the first Red Scare, this second Red Scare came about as a reaction to happenings around Russia after the second World War, such as the trial of the Rosenbergs, who were executed in Russia due to an accused conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war, which was considered an extremely serious offense, especially with the memory of World War II still fresh in their minds (Heale 54). Another external factor for this second Red Scare was what came to be known as the Iron Curtain, which was both an ideological and physical boundary that cut off Eastern Europe from Western Europe and represented the desire of Russia to seal it and its allies off from everyone else, prompting fears that they were forming military alliances and, perhaps even worse, developing nuclear weapons, or perhaps some sort of new, even deadlier weapon (Heale 145). The most terrifying indicators of Communist "invasion" stemmed from discoveries made domestically. For instance, the testimony of Russian spies Elizabeth Bentley and Whittaker Meyer stated that there were Russian spies and sympathizers who had already infiltrated the United States government, and that there would only be more as time went on (Doherty 7). Nevertheless, this second Red Scare had a profound effect on the psyche of America. What was once thought to be a purely rational and civilized country, it was shown, can quickly devolve into paranoid xenophobes with the slightest amount of (untrue) testimony.

All of these accusations of spying, nuclear bomb development, and torture (mainly between Russia and the United States) eventually led to a state of extreme tension between the two countries that came to be known as the Cold War, and lasted for almost fifty years: between 1947 all the way to 1991, although the brunt of the tension was during the late fifties (Gaddis 15). Although the second Red Scare was a profound segue into the Cold War, there were a number of smaller factors that not only began the Cold War (during which there was little actual violence) but continued to perpetuate it, to the point that it lasted about as long as the Soviet Union itself. For example, the Warsaw Pact, signed in 1955, formed an alliance for the Soviets in the Eastern Bloc, increasing tensions for both parties (Gaddis 17). All of this anti-Communist hysteria came to a head when, in the late fifties, the Third World was increasingly decolonized by both the Soviets and the United States, prompting many to believe that the two nations were preparing to go to war; a war which many, with the memory of World War II still fresh in their minds, adamantly protested.

While there was little actual physical combat between these two nations, anti-Communist hysteria was not limited solely to the Soviets, although they were certainly the main offenders. In fact, the Cuban Missile Crisis involved increasing tensions between Cuba (namely thanks to numerous assassination attempts made by the United States on Cuba's dictator, Fidel Castro) and the United States, who were, at the time, still engulfed in the Cold War with the Soviets, and were extremely protective of their own country, especially involving nuclear weapons. It was also, however, the culmination of decades of slowly rising tension between the United States and the Soviets, as the United States feared that Russia would use Cuba as a base of operations for firing nuclear weapons at the United States (Doherty 12). The Cuban Missile Crisis was so important because it represented the pinnacle of anti-Communism hysteria (although this hysteria was certainly not limited to just the United States). It also was one of the finest examples of what is called "mutually assured destruction," which simply means that if two countries have nuclear weapons, and one uses these nuclear weapons to destroy the other, the other country will also use theirs, thus destroying both countries. This, of course, would be an unfavorable outcome for both the Soviet Union and the United States, and so, eventually, the Soviets backed down from the Missile Crisis, and prompted much soul-searching within the United States about just how much damage this anti-Communist hysteria was causing it as a nation and, more importantly, as a people.

While both Red Scares (and the subsequent Cold War they perpetuated) are now over, there were lessons learned for the United States that will, hopefully, be learned from. Hysteria can only beget violence and more hysteria. As Kennedy demonstrated during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the best way to defuse a situation is to utilize logic and communication with all affected parties, even if this course of actions seems impossible. When two large nations go to war, whatever benefits may be reaped are always outweighed by the financial and psychological damage of the constant threat of invasion. While McCarthyism continues to be an unfortunate side-effect of this anti-Communist hysteria, its effects can be minimized by simply being rational about both domestic and (especially) foreign disputes so that a situation such as the Cold War can be avoided in the future.

Works Cited

Doherty, Thomas Patrick. Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture. Columbia University Press, 2003.

Gaddis, John Lewis. The United States and the origins of the Cold War: 1941-1947. Columbia University Press, 1972.

Heale, Michael J. McCarthy's Americans: red scare politics in state and nation, 1935-1965. University of Georgia Press, 1998.

McCarthy, Joseph, and Thomas C. Reeves. "McCarthyism." The Fight for America. New York: The Devin-Adair Company (1952).

Murray, Robert K. Red scare: A study of national hysteria, 1919-1920. U of Minnesota Press, 1955. 5

Williams, David. "The Bureau of Investigation and its critics, 1919-1921: The origins of federal political surveillance." The Journal of American History 68.3 (1981): 560-579.